Johannes Kohtz

Johannes Kohtz (July 18, 1843 in Elbing – October 5, 1918) was a German chess composer and together with Carl Kockelkorn one of the founders of the logical school.

In their views of chess composition, Kohtz and Kockelkorn harmonized so much that after a short while they decided to publish their problems only as co-productions.

After being confronted with rumors that problems by only one of them would also be published as co-productions, Johannes Kohtz wrote 1870 in the Schachzeitung that on every composition both sat together on the chessboard.

Kohtz had better reasons for his views on chess composition so he won the correspondence — which was broken off by the start of the First World War — and thereby led to the replacement of the Altdeutsche Schule by the Logical School.

Even after the death of his close friend Kockelkorn on July 16, 1914, Kohtz still published his problems under both authors names.